Thursday 22 May 2008

Thursday's News

OK, so I'm £2.50 down rather than £182 up, but easy come, easy go.

It was a good game to watch last night, given that Chelsea hit the post and bar, but Man Utd should have been 3-0 up at half time, I'd say 1-1 was fair enough. Quite how stupid Drogba is is today's big question. He knows he'll get sent off if he raises a hand above chest height, he's got 3 minutes to go in the game, then he'll need to take a penalty for the team. So what does he do? He slaps Vidic with all the power of the Austrian Navy and gets sent off. He would have been better to have hit him properly and still got sent off. Spoken like a true centre half!

Anyway, Lara... she was very good last night, considering she's had a cold again this week. She woke up only once, just before Ronaldo started his run up for his rubbish penalty - thank god for Sky's Live Pause! Even then she only woke for a few seconds and went back to sleep without any interference from us. Then she went on to sleep through until nearly 6am, which was a nice surprise.
Olga has taken her to the GP today for the usual fortnightly weigh-in - she's slowed her rate of weight gain, but she's still above average (just under the 75th percentile for those who care, whereas she's been on it or above it before) at 7.08kg or 15lbs 9.5oz. It will be very interesting to weight her as soon as we're back from Russia, especially if we start weaning her onto more solid foods while we're away.

It seems we have won a year's free membership for both of us to a local gym. A letter was put through the door yesterday, one of those usual "Your address has been selected... blah blah" but it looked more authentic than most, in that bits of it were hand-written rather than mass produced; anyway, Olga called the number and sure enough, a human being answered and we were told we had won a gym membership worth £750 at a gym that's about a mile away. We're going to have a look round it tonight to see if it's all kosher and above board, but if it's true it's better than a kick in the teeth, or even a slap from Drogba.

Regarding the holiday, Olga had a big shop at Asda last night to buy in all the stuff Lucy might need while she house-sits for us.
Today's big job was ordering the roubles we need to take with us. Travelex in Heathrow Terminal One assure me that they will have enough to cover our needs on Monday morning, apparently the boss guy there can't move for the stuff in his little bureau because of thousands of Brits coming back from Moscow for some reason or another.
I still need to make a fancy powerpoint presentation of where we're going exactly, and when, and how (it really is Planes, Trains and Automobiles) so I'm hoping that if I have a quiet day tomorrow either side of Friday Lunchtime Drinkies, I can put something together. Then it's just a case of putting my "I'm on holiday" message on and bringing my pumpbag home.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Champions League Final...

OK, it's just kicked off, the burgers are cooked, the beer is open, even Lara has been kind and is asleep (for now).
I'm favouring Chelsea (I can't support ManU can I!?) and to make it extra-interesting I've put a couple of little bets on:
Last Goal Scorer in 90 minutes: John Terry, £1 at 33/1
First Yellow Card: John Terry, 50p at 14/1
Last Goal Scorer in a 2-2 Draw: Ryan Giggs, £1 at 175/1

Last of the big spenders, eh!? And I know I have two Last Goal Scorers, but I'm hedging my bets.

Monday 19 May 2008

Lara's new Maclaren & life with Mishka

We've been very happy with the Quinny car seat / pram thingy so far, but we felt it would be too cumbersome to take with us on holiday, so Olga bought a Maclaren Quest buggy today from Mothercare. It's lightweight and folds down easily, and is suitable for babies from 3 months old, and it reclines so Lara will be able to sleep in it on Russian railway platforms while we wait for trains.
Lara is modelling it in the "New Photos" web album on the left, and it's here too in this video where she's teasing a newly-trimmed Mishka:


Oh, we'd also bought Lara her first high chair, she looks pretty small in it at the moment but by the time we're back from Russia she might well be starting on more solidy-type foods and we wanted to get her used to sitting in it. There are photos of her looking extra cute in it in the New Photos album too.

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Tribe



We went to the Saunton Sands Hotel in Devon this weekend for Oli & Jo's wedding, and very nice it was too.
The weather was a bit grey to start with, but considering that the forecast on the TV in the morning was for "potential, torrential thunderstorms in Devon and Cornwall" there was hardly a drop of rain all day, it was mild, and the sun even came out from time to time.
Lara was very well behaved all day. She's discovered that she likes playing with TV remote controls, especially ones she can fit into her mouth. The ceremony was at 12.30, and sometimes we can get Lara off to sleep around that time at home, but we weren't over-confident on Saturday. She started whinging about 12.15, which is a good sign she's tired, but when we filtered into the room for the ceremony, we hung at the back, ready to make a quick exit if needed. However, Lara had clearly read the script, and fell asleep in her car seat about a minute before Jo came in, and she slept the whole way though, apart from to give her Dad a dirty look for applauding too loudly after the "you may kiss the bride" part.
She enjoyed the drinkies reception before the Wedding Breakfast, and is learning how to handle a champagne flute, which might or might not be a good sign. The hotel had provided a high chair for her at our table, and she was OK in that until we were between the starter and main course, at which time I took her out of the room in her car seat and convinced her that it was time for an afternoon nap, which meant we were able to eat the main course and dessert in peace. Naturally she wanted to be awake for the speeches though!
She joined us for the start of the evening reception at 7.30, but after the happy couple's first dance we thought it was time she retired for the night. We had taken our baby monitor with us, so Olga was able to put her to bed in our room and come back with the monitor - there were times that I felt like a security guard with my walkie-talkie, but it was definitely a good idea. We had one false alarm during the evening, which caused Olga to dash back to the room, but all was quiet. Lara did wake up around midnight, and the monitor picked this up, but after a touch of Calpol and a midnight snack, she was back off to sleep and Olga and I did the modern-parent thing and took a large whiskey, a glass of wine and the monitor out onto the terrace for a relaxing nightcap. Lara thoughtfully had a lie-in until nearly 6am the next morning before demanding breakfast in bed (our bed, to be precise). We reciprocated though by waking her from a deep sleep at 8.30 when it was time for the adults to go and have their nice big fry-up.
The weather on Sunday morning was much nicer than Saturday, and a walk down on the beach seemed the right thing to do, as much to test out the all-terrain qualities of the Quinny pram (good on compacted sand, not so good on loose, dry sand).
We stopped off to see Anton, Becca and Eve on the way home, where Becca took a good photo - see it here on their blog.
Above are some photos from the day. I also used my old film camera for some photos, so as soon as I've finished the film and got it developed (how quaint!) I'll post them too.

(the view from one of the hotel rooms, not ours sadly, on Sunday)